Protected Areas - Introduction to Conservation Biology - Lecture Slides, Slides of Biology

Download Protected Areas - Introduction to Conservation Biology - Lecture Slides and more Slides Biology in PDF only on Docsity! Protected Areas • The increasing pressure from anthropogenic stressors makes preservation of natural areas crucial for the preservation of biodiversity • Because of the governmental support (in most cases) protected areas are a very effective conservation tool • Marine protected areas (MPAs) often restrict fishing or limit access Docsity.com Protected Areas • Protecting areas can help with some of the key threats: habitat degradation, overexploitation, and to a lesser degree pollution and invasive species • Protected areas serve other benefits than just directly benefiting plants and wildlife… can you think of some? Docsity.com Protected Areas • NPs were largely created in response to the loss of wild places & to hunt (and populations) • Even though hunting was off-limits, the role of protected areas was well understood and allowed for populations to be sustained and ‘feed’ other areas • Later, many protected areas were specifically for spawning or breeding grounds Docsity.com Protected Areas • Protected area establishment is a requirement for many international environmental agreements and conventions such as CBD, Convention & Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, CITES, Convention for the Protection of Wetlands of International Importance Docsity.com Current State of Protected Areas • The number of protected areas began increasing rapidly worldwide in the 1960’s Docsity.com Types of Protected Areas • Category II: national parks • NPs are generally managed for ecosystem protection and human enjoyment or recreation • Scientific, education, and rec important • Dual mandate can be problematic – Snowmobiles in Yellowstone • E.g. Tubbataha Reef in Philippines Docsity.com Types of Protected Areas • Category III: national monuments • Managed for conservation of specific resource or cultural feature (e.g. waterfalls, caves, geologic features) Docsity.com Types of Protected Areas • Category IV: habitat/sp man. area • Established for conservation purposes • Scientific research and monitoring are of prime importance • Established in US, 1903 at Pelican Island, FL • WMA (96M acres, 548 ref) Docsity.com Types of Protected Areas • Protected areas of any kind can also be classified as Biosphere Reserves, World Heritage Sites or Ramsar Wetlands (e.g. Yellowstone and Ngorogoro crater) • There are currently 411 biosphere reserves in 94 countries • Ideally, biospheres create 1 or 2 areas of low-intensity areas and 1 restricted Docsity.com Types of Protected Areas • The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance was signed in 1971 in Ramsar (Iran) and provides framework for protecting wetlands of international importance • Contracting parties commit to designating eligible areas as Ramsar wetlands and are rewarded with management tools and aid in implementation (96M ha) Docsity.com Types of Protected Areas • Strict Protection vs. Multiple Use • The role of strictly protected (Cat I- IV) vs. Multiple use (V & VI) is debated • While restricted areas provide very good protection, they may alienate locals • Given this, 23.3% of world’s protected areas are Cat. VI (vs. Cat I, <11%) Docsity.com Management Effectiveness • Despite many of these shortcoming, protected areas do achieve their goals – S higher in PA, even w/out protection • There is large evidence of the effectiveness in marine systems • In a study analyzing older protected areas (x=23 yrs), majority of sites have increased natural vegetative cover Docsity.com Management Effectiveness • A key attribute to the success of a PA was the density of guards (8x higher in the best 15 PA vs. 15 least effective PA) • Another recent report from WWF showed that management effectiveness is correlated with IUCN categories and that UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserves, World Heritage, or Ramsar sites, are all as effective as other types Docsity.com Need for Reserve Systems • Single protected areas will rarely be of adequate size or scope to conserve a representative sample of the biodiversity of a region, therefore entire reserve systems are critical for the conservation of biodiversity • It does NOT need to be all Cat. I or II Docsity.com Need for Reserve Systems • Study also points out the skew in distribution of PAs – E.g. in New World, strictly protected sites only averaged is only 4.86km2 and 57% are less than 10km2 – Furthermore, 35% of total protected area is in Alaska!! – Worldwide, 46% of PA in tropics (76% S) Docsity.com Need for Reserve Systems • Using areas of high endemism as well as high threat, we can identify priority areas for the expansion of the protected areas network Docsity.com Need for Reserve Systems • Currently, 12.65% of Earth’s surface is under PA designation, although marine PA are only 0.5% of the PA (1/3 of great barrier reef is protected) Docsity.com Planning Reserve Systems • Recent research efforts have focused on the development of principles and tools to design efficient reserve systems for as little as possible, AKA systematic conservation planning • SCP recognize that due to constraints on the amount of land that can be set aside for biodiversity conservation, there is need to conserve biodiversity in the most efficient manner possible Docsity.com Planning Reserve Systems • There are frequently quantitative objectives in SCP efforts • There are a number of principles associated with finding the best set of potential protected areas that satisfies a number of principles: comprehensiveness, representativeness, adequacy, efficiency, flexibility, risk spreading, and irreplaceability Docsity.com Planning Reserve Systems • A comprehensive reserve system is one that contains examples of biodiversity features including species, habitats, or ecological processes • A good PA system will only protect a small amount of land; consequently, one a fraction of the feature will be protected. Ideally, we should protect a representative sample of each Docsity.com Planning Reserve Systems • Maintaining connections is often essential to long-term persistence of sp – 1) fragmentation and dispersal linked – 2) widespread sp need v large areas – 3) climate change likely to alter ranges – 4) planning outside PA can increase conservation potential with landscape planning Docsity.com Planning Reserve Systems • Protected area shape is important due to both ecological and economic factors • Corridors can enhance and facilitate movement between and among PAs – There are negatives to corridors…what? • Minimizing fragmentation • Can compare or quantify Boundary Length / 2 √π x Area Docsity.com Planning Reserve Systems • The use of surrogates can lower the total information required (e.g. indicator sp) Docsity.com